


National Anthem

by violet_saturn



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fourth of July, Office Party, Party, Summer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 15:49:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15174077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violet_saturn/pseuds/violet_saturn
Summary: Pied Piper's CFO and Systems Architect haven't interacted much since their victory over the 51% attack. Will Pied Piper's first 4th of July party change things?





	National Anthem

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first and only hallfoyle fic. It's going to be a slowburn insofar as in how long it takes chapters to get out, but this is going to be a short, contained story. I hope you enjoy, I'm a little rusty when it comes to writing. note: this is not a songfic, I just really like Lana Del Rey songs.

After several of the engineers dropped not so subtle hints that the 4th of July was coming up and they didn’t have plans Richard and Jared scrambled to put together a company party for them. Since five days from the fourth wasn’t enough time to book a place it was decided that they’d just have it at the Hacker Hostel. In order to make more space, tech equipment was moved into the garage for the time being, and bright yellow signs reading ‘KEEP OUT’ in bold green letters plastered the bedroom doors to ensure the privacy of the residents.

 

“The party’s going to be outside, are we really expecting the engineers to be wandering the house, heading into rooms they need to stay the fuck out of?” Gilfoyle asked, holding his obol bowl in one hand and using his spoon to gesture at the sign Jared placed on Big Head’s door. 

 

“Ah, well. We can expect at least more than a few of them will be coming indoors to use the bathrooms, or to get more refreshments, or just to get a break from the heat, and this is just a precaution. I’m sure the pipers will respect our private spaces but, you know, just in case.” Jared said as he smoothed out the creases of the sign.

 

“No one better go into my fucking room. But, if for some reason, I am in there and someone needs something from me, they can knock first.”

 

“Duly noted!”

 

The morning of the 4th of July started with Dinesh and Big Head setting up the grill in the backyard and queueing up a playlist that could essentially be referred to as ‘turn up at the function’ music. A nine hour set mix of rap and pop music guaranteed to get people dancing. In the early afternoon as they were still setting things up Gilfoyle stayed inside, he had moved his entire station to the garage for this thing, he had done his part to help out, he had no intention of doing anything else. He did however supervise Richard and Jared carrying in the last of the groceries from their most recent trip to the store. 

 

“You sure this is enough?” Richard asked, Jared as he carried in the thirty-seventh bag of groceries from the car. “I just, I don’t want to run out. We’ve never had this many people coming over before.”

 

“And whose fault is that?” Gilfoyle quipped from his chair in the corner.

 

“Richard, we’ve been to the store six times now. And we’ve gotten something different each time to ensure variety. The fridge is at capacity, I’m sure we have enough for everyone.”

 

“Yeah I- I know, but what if we missed something, what if we don’t have something that someone wants,”

 

“Richard, I don’t mean to interrupt, but these bags are starting to feel heavy, I can feel my arms wanting to fall off, could we go into the kitchen?”

 

“Oh! Oh! Right, sorry, let’s uh, let’s go.”

 

The silence that fell in the room as soon as they were gone was the last quiet moment Gilfoyle would get to experience before the house was filled with over fifty Pied Piper employees, eight developers, and one CFO.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

That afternoon the weather was perfect as Monica stepped into the backyard, seeing the party in full swing. The skies were a sweet, bright blue, and aside from a few fluffy white clouds here and there, they were clear and seemed to be more expansive today, with the sun shining brightly without being too overly hot. The temperature was cool, and Monica could smell a mixture of bug spray, lavender oil, and citronella oil candles in the air.

 

A No Doubt song played over speakers, Monica could overhear several different conversations, laughter, and a few people singing along to Gwen Stefani’s vocals as they danced. As she made her way through the crowds Monica took note of how different it was seeing the Pipers outside of the office, and wearing something other than their company hoodies, shirts, jeans, and sneakers. She was surrounded by pastels and bold colors, tank tops, boardshorts, swim trunks, swimsuits, bikinis. She suddenly felt overdressed in her creamy yellow sundress with its dark blue flowers printed all along the skirt and her straw sun hat. 

 

After saying hello to the engineers and developers she found herself at the grill where the boys were. Jared and Richard were placing plates of cooked burgers and sausages down on a table covered with utensils, condiments and napkins. 

 

“Monica! Welcome, would you like a burger?” Jared asked.

 

“I’m good, thanks, but maybe later. Wow, this is quite the shindig.”

 

Richard handed her a red solo cup filled with ice. “‘We’ve got beer, water, sodas, and pink lemonade. Unless there’s something you want that we don’t have, haha. There’s not, is there?”

 

“No! No, no, pink lemonade is just fine, actually. God, I haven’t had this in a long time. Are you guys enjoying yourselves? You worked super hard to put this all together, you should be partying it up."

"Ah, well, we did this for the pipers, they wanted this party, so, you know, as long as they're happy."

And they were happy. From what Monica could see there were plenty of the employees taking videos of themselves and their coworkers talking, laughing, swimming, and lounging in the pool in flotation devices and uploading them to their social media accounts. 

"If you're not interested in a burger, maybe you might enjoy a seekh kebab, hmm?" Dinesh asked, gesturing with tongs at the kebabs he had on the grill. 

"Those do look good," Monica had to admit, taking a sip of her pink lemonade as she watched them being rotated.

"Yeah, I'm getting pretty good at this whole 'grilling outside' thing, Dinesh said, smiling to himself. "I feel like I could enter one of those barbecue competitions and win."

"You do know there's a huge difference between grilling and barbecuing, right? They're not the same thing." Danny said, grabbing a Heineken from a cooler.

"Oh and what do you know about barbecuing, Danny?" Dinesh asked, sneering at him.

"Not much. Oh, except for everything I learned from my family back in Texas. They own ranches and have placed extremely high in barbecue championships and cook offs."

"...Yeah, well, did they ever win?"

As Monica laughed along with the others as Dinesh insisted that Danny get behind the grill and cook the rest of the food since he was such an expert, she realized there was one person she hadn't seen yet. Looking around she scanned the sea of pastels and tropical prints for a glimpse of plaid or black. And there, off in the corner by himself, was Gilfoyle. He had one hand in his black jeans and a beer in the other. He really did stand out with his long hair and beard, Monica thought. Not in a bad way, of course, she always thought they made him look more handsome. She noticed the pale blue t-shirt he had on wasn’t something she had seen him in before. 

 

He looked….good in it. Great, even. The color really popped against his dark hair and pale skin, and the shirt was tight on him, showing off Gilfoyle’s broad chest and the short sleeves let Monica see his biceps. How was it possible that she known him all these years and only now was she aware of his muscles?

 

As she stared at him unaware of how blatant she was being, it was inevitable that Gilfoyle noticed her. The second he made eye contact with her Monica smiled at him, mouthed a ‘hi!’ his way, and waved at him. Gilfoyle didn’t respond to her warm greeting. Instead, he looked away from her, and stepped away from his corner to go back into the house. Monica frowned. They hadn’t really spoken since their awkward conversation when Gilfoyle told her he liked her then fumbled through explaining that he didn’t mean in that way. At the time, Monica had walked away from that whole experience feeling unclean. Not because of what he had said, but because before he clarified what he meant a part of her had hoped that his declaration of liking her came from a place of attraction. It didn’t, and that was fine. But he had ignored her attempts at conversation ever since then, and Monica wasn’t sure her feelings could take it anymore. She missed talking to him, she missed his friendship. She had hoped they would get a chance to reconnect at the party, but if he was going to keep being distant that was never going to happen.

 

She set her drink down on the table next to the grill as a Ciara song started up, and headed towards the Hacker Hostel.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading, please leave a comment, it would help me out a lot to know your thoughts!


End file.
